Lyft

Lyft is making the cost of a ride more transparent in some cities, announcing the launch of upfront price totals — that is, the ability to see how much your full trip will cost with everything factored in, including the company’s version of surge pricing (when applicable), taxes and such. This eases riders' minds when it comes to cost, and also keeps the no-longer-pink-mustachioed company at pace with competitor Uber.

The way you knew a car was your Lyft ride for since the service started was to look for the pink Glowstache. Things are changing at Lyft and the company has unveiled the next generation of in-car communications for drivers and riders and it is called Amp. The Amp is an in-car communications device that helps drivers and passengers find each other.

Lyft has a new experiment that may make it more attractive to frequent users: ride passes of sort that lock in certain per-ride rates depending on how much you spend. The idea here is that, assuming you use the service frequently, you can save money in a way similar to bus and train passes, bringing your overall travel costs down. Such an arrangement may be necessary to secure daily or near-daily repeat customers.

Bad news if you were hoping to dispatch your autonomous Tesla to pick up a few Uber or Lyft passengers and contribute to its own monthly lease payment. While the electric car company may be gung-ho about its self-driving technology, the hardware for which will be preinstalled on every car produced from now on, it's not so happy with it being used for ride-sharing schemes. That is, not unless it's Tesla's own.

Uber and Lyft face their latest legal struggle in Philadelphia, where they were ordered yesterday night to stop operating. Both companies ultimately ignored the order and continued providing rides via their respective platforms; soon after, Uber got a small victory via a preliminary injunction that blocked the cease and desist order. That itself is only a temporary victory, though, and the company -- as well as Lyft -- face an uphill battle to get more friendly legislation established, otherwise they risk a similar order to cease operations in the future.

Most proponents of self-driving cars cite benefits to driver and passenger safety and traffic decongestion as some of the biggest benefits of the technology, which continues to face tough opposition, especially after a series of accidents attributed, properly or not, to autonomous driving technologies. Lyft, however, is trying to appeal to a slightly different side of the same coin: economy and ecology. It so strongly believes in the self-driving future that it predicts that by 2021, majority of Lyft rides will be on self-driving cars. Even more, by 2025, private car ownership in the US will be no more. At least almost.

Back in March, Google added a ride services section to Google Maps that presents various ride services with how soon you could take them and about how much they’d cost. The idea is that you probably don’t have time to toggle between a bunch of different apps to figure out which transportation method is the fastest — using this ride services tab, you can see in one glance whether it would, for example be faster to take an Uber car or a taxi; or, alternatively, whether one option would be cheaper than another. In a statement today, Google announced it has updated that ride services integration with two new companies.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has signed a new law that will impose a fee on every ride generated through ride-hailing apps like Lyft and Uber. The fee will only come in at 20 cents per ride, and the good news for consumers is that they won't see the fee tacked onto the cost of their ride, as this law bans the service providers from passing the cost of the fee onto consumers.

Just a week ago it was reported that Lyft, the US's second largest ride-hailing company, turned down an acquisition offer from investor General Motors. But new details from the New York Times say that Lyft has actually been looking for a buyer for several months now, holding discussions with a number of companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, GM, China's Didi Chuxing, and even main rival Uber, but failing to make any deals.

Lyft has announced refined drop-off and pickup options in its app, allowing users to chose the precise places their Lyft rider lets them out or picks them up. Lyft says the drop-off locations can be as exact as a specific door at a specific airport terminal, eliminating the need to call the driver and tell them over the phone where exactly you are. These precise drop-offs aren't available at all places across the nation, though.

General Motors recently told Lyft that it is interested in acquiring the ridesharing company. Though Lyft at least briefly considered it — and went on to look into other potential acquirers, as well — it ultimately turned GM away. This is according to a pair of sources who cropped up recently; while they don’t know how much General Motors was looking to pay, it is worth pointing out that GM has already invested heavily in Lyft, having shelled out $500 million to get a 9-percent stake in the company several months ago.

Lyft has partnered with Starbucks to offer physical gift cards for the ridesharing service. The gift cards would ordinarily only be worth grabbing if you’re giving someone a gift, but Starbucks is tossing its own perk into the mix: a $5 gift card as a bonus when buying a $20 gift card. That’s enough to get a coffee or two for your morning commute, and may be reason enough to get a physical card instead of using your bank card.